Inspired Voter - Thoughts from the Trenches…

By the end of yesterday, Obama moved well beyond the goal line of attaining 2,118 delegates for the Democratic nomination. Obama has now amassed 2,154 delegates. Clinton has 1,919.5 at this time.

A slew of new delegate endorsements came out in support of Obama after the polls closed last night where he lost in South Dakota (but still gained more delegates) and won in Montana. Obama also gained an endorsement from former President Jimmy Carter.

Obama makes history as the first African-American to clinch the democratic nomination. He now looks to the future contest against John McCain in the fall.

Hillary Clinton delivered a speech with a bit of praise for how Obama has run the race, but devoid of any congratulations to him for winning the contest. She vowed that she would not concede the race, even though Obama was already way past the finish line.

One Huffington Post writer said in an article titled “Clinton in Denial of Obama Nomination. Why?”:

Clinton astonishingly refused to acknowledge that Obama, the first African American nominee, came from behind to win a majority of primaries and caucuses, a majority of delegates, and a majority of votes.

Clinton is in denial indeed, but there is new talk of her aggressively vying for the VP spot under Obama.

In the meantime, Obama will accept his nomination on the 45th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream” Speech. That day will mark a fitting beginning for a Presidential candidate to lead an America that is as diverse and multi-faceted as ever.

ALSO READ: Obama and Hillary’s Full June 3rd Speeches

Days since the first presidential nominating contest in Iowa: 152

Total popular vote for Clinton and Obama in Democratic contests where delegates were awarded, except for caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Washington, Maine and Texas where no popular vote was released: 35.1 million.

Obama has had 33 wins:

Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Democrats Abroad, District of Columbia, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Clinton has had 22* wins:

American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida (*Obama did not campaign), Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan (*Obama not on ballot), Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia.

Primaries Obama has won: 18

Primaries Clinton has won: 19

Caucuses Obama has won: 14

Caucuses Clinton has won: 3

See more figures here.

Hillary Clinton has pledged to continue her fight for the White House, but more and more people are expressing their opinion that the race is over. Now, we can add a national polling firm to that group.

National polling firm Rasmussen Reports announced on Friday that it will stop polling people about the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton because her opponent, Barack Obama, will win the Democratic nomination.

The company’s vice president of finance and operations, Michael Boniello, distributed an e-mail with the following statement:

However, while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.

With this in mind, Rasmussen Reports will soon end our daily tracking of the Democratic race and focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

The e-mail also stated that the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday showed Barack Obama attracting 47 percent of the vote, while John McCain earned 44 percent.

SOURCE: ‘Race Is Over’: Polling Firm to Quit Asking Clinton Questions

OBAMA WINS NORTH CAROLINA by 14%, CLINTON WINS INDIANA BY 2%

With Obama’s big win in North Carolina yesterday, and the closely split results in Indiana, it’s undeniable that Obama has added more fuel to his already inevitable win. He has more delegates, and more of the popular vote.

The real question is, since there is no negative tactic that Hillary Clinton is unwilling to use, no strategy too low to pull out of her grab bag of tricks, why couldn’t she close the deal?

As RJ Eskow wrote in a Huffington Post article:

For weeks Sen. Clinton and her supporters taunted the Obama campaign by asking, “Why can’t he close the deal?” Fair question. If Obama is going to be the nominee, they argued, why can’t he deliver some more decisive wins?

After tonight’s results the question has to be reversed: Why couldn’t she close the deal? Sen. Clinton needed a forceful victory to deliver the message that she, not Sen. Obama, has momentum and vote-getting ability. Yet she lost resoundingly in North Carolina, and as of this writing Indiana hangs in the balance. I’m not prepared to write the Clinton campaign’s obit yet - that’s been done one too many times already, and they may continue to fight for a while. What’s different now is that the outcome has become inevitable.

Read the full article here.

There is another report floating about that strong Clinton supporter and fellow Arkansan General Wes Clark called Hillary last night telling her it’s time to quit. Wes Clark is a former 2004 presidential candidate and later endorsed John Kerry.

NBC News reported around midnight that Clinton had canceled her scheduled network morning appearances for Wednesday morning, contributing to the perception that her campaign was thrown back on its heels by the results.

There may be many people urging Clinton to concede the race today, but little chance she will listen. In the meantime, the race will go on until Clinton decides her desire to win at any cost cannot trump what has already been proven - that she is out of math, momentum and money.

ALSO READ: Obama wins North Carolina, Clinton squeaks by Indiana

First there was “Obama girl”, now there are.. the “McCain girls”. People are certainly excited about politics these days. These three women want John McCain in the White House. Did they convince you?

MISSPOKE, MISHEARD, MISUNDERSTOOD

It seems the Clinton camp has been telling superdelegates that Obama can’t win. No surprise there. However, her subsequent denial of the statement and then retraction of the denial have people yelling: Liar, liar, sniper fire.

Sources with direct knowledge of a conversation between Senator Clinton and Governor Bill Richardson, prior to the Governor’s endorsement of Obama say she told him flatly,

“He cannot win, Bill. He cannot win.”

Clinton responded to the allegations at a press conference in Burbank, California, “I have consistently made the case that I can win because I believe I can win, and you know sometimes people draw the conclusion I’m saying somebody else can’t win.”

At the end of the conference, when directly asked if she made the comment in a private conversation with Richardson, Hillary Clinton told reporters “That’s a no.”

Clinton aides now insist the Senator misunderstood the question, asserting the candidate believed she was answering whether or not she would discuss a private conversation.

SOURCE: Clinton Denies Telling Richardson Obama Can’t Win

Bosnia, Northern Ireland, NAFTA … multiple false claims. “Misspeaks” or disregard for the truth? Watch this compilation (or read excerpts below) and decide for yourself.

• Foreign Policy: 7 seconds into the video
• Bosnia: 53 seconds into the video
• Northern Ireland at the 2:20 minute mark
• NAFTA at 4 minutes

FOREIGN POLICY

Hillary Clinton claims great foreign policy, but when her advisers were asked to provide examples in an interview with Slate, there was a long silence. They failed to provide any.

BOSNIA

Hillary said she was under sniper fire in Bosnia, and the greeting ceremony had to be canceled. News footage shows no sniper fire and the greeting ceremony went on as planned.

NORTHERN IRELAND

In New Hampshire, January 2008, Hillary said:

“I went to [Northern Ireland] more than my husband did. I was working to help change the atmosphere among people because leaders alone rarely make peace. I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together Catholics and Protestants…”

There is no record of any such meeting. Hillary did however attend a ceremony in 1995 where Bill Clinton turned on some Christmas lights. After the meeting, Hillary met with some women at the Lamp Lighter Cafe. Hillary was given a tea pot as a gift.

On March 2008, Hillary told CNN,

“I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland.”

The Daily Telegraph reported in 1998 that Hillary Clinton played no part in political talks over the years. The former first Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, called her claims “a wee bit silly”. (more…)

THREATENING LETTER DOESN’T SWAY PELOSI

Twenty “top fundraisers” for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign sent a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuking her for suggesting that superdelegates should back the candidate with the most pledged delegates.

In the letter to Pelosi, Clinton’s supporters “said superdelegates ‘must look to not one criterion but to the full panoply of factors that will help them assess who will be the party’s strongest nominee in the general election.’”

The letter made it clear that the fundraisers believe their voice should carry real weight with the speaker. Noting their past financial support, they wrote, “We . . . hope you will be responsive to some of your major enthusiastic supporters.”

In spite of the threats from the Clinton-donors, Pelosi stands by her comments. Her spokesman, Brendan Daly said,

“The speaker believes it would do great harm to the Democratic Party if superdelegates are perceived to overturn the will of the voters. This has been her position throughout this primary season, regardless of who was ahead at any particular point in delegates or votes.”

Clinton is behind Obama in both pledged delegates and popular vote. She most likely cannot catch up but hopes superdelegates will overturn the votes of the people and help her win.

Obama’s campaign said the letter was inappropriate.

“We hope the Clinton campaign will reject the insinuation contained in it,” said Obama’s spokesman. However, the Clinton team is standing behind the letter saying:

“Sen. Clinton has been vocal in stating that superdelegates should exercise independent judgment about who’d be the best for the party and the country,” said spokesman Phil Singer.

Except… back in November 2000, Hillary said this:

“I have thought about this for a long time,” Mrs. Clinton said at a rally in Syracuse. “I’ve always thought we had outlived the need for an Electoral College, and now that I am going to the Senate, I am going to try to do what I can to make clear that the popular vote, the will of the people, should be followed.”
***
She said she wanted “to be on the side of the democratic process working,” and so would support the effort to establish direct presidential elections.
***
“I believe strongly that in a democracy we should respect the will of the people.”

The “brazen” move by the donors has “stunned” veteran Democrats for a number of reasons, according to this report.

SOURCES: Clinton Backers Rebuke Pelosi for Stance on Superdelegates, Clinton Wealthy Pals Warn Pelosi on Superdelegates, Top Clinton Backers Threaten Pelosi

Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has endorsed Barack Obama today for the Democratic nomination for president.

“The endorsement comes as something of a surprise,” Dan Pfeiffer, Obama communications director, said in a statement. “Casey … had been adamant about remaining neutral until after the April 22 primary. He said he wanted to help unify the party.“

Obama strategists hope Casey can help Obama make inroads with the conservative, white working-class men who are often referred to as ‘Casey Democrats.’

“There are few stronger advocates for working families in Pennsylvania than Sen. Casey,” Pfeiffer said.

Casey, who is also a superdelegate, will actively tour and campaign with Obama. His endorsement brings to 12 the number of U.S. senators backing Obama, compared with 13 for Clinton.

Casey is impressed with how Obama has handled his campaign, and how he sacrificed at the beginning of his career to be a community organizer “in the shadows of the closed steel mills in Chicago,” said a source close to Casey.

Hillary Clinton currently has the lead in Pennsylvania, and has the endorsement of the state’s governor, Ed Rendell, and Philadelphia mayor, Michael Nutter.

Clinton is poised to win the state, but a strong showing by Obama would keep his accumulated lead in delegates and in the popular vote intact.

SOURCE: Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey Will Endorse Obama, Tour With Campaign

SOURCE: The Early Word: Casey to Endorse Obama

CLINTON’S MORAL HIGH GROUND

In order to deflect the media’s attention from her false claims about Bosnia, Hillary Clinton has attempted to re-ignite the Wright issue. Until now, she has avoided the issue but she said Tuesday in Pennsylvania that she would have “left the church in protest if he were her pastor”.

THE HOPE
Hillary is banking on the hope that American people will continue to be more upset by Wright’s remarks than her lies about Bosnia. (Yes, lies. She didn’t earn “four Pinocchios“ from the Washington Post for “misspeaking”.)

Hillary is also banking on the hope (and probable reality) that the media will not investigate her own secretive religious group who’s goal is “a leadership led by God–leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit.”

It seems a lot of the “God-led people”, according to the Fellowship, happen to be vicious dictators.

According to the Fellowship’s archives, the spirit has in the past led its members in Congress to increase U.S. support for the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the Park dictatorship in South Korea. The Fellowship’s God-led men have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators.

Hillary has been an active member of this religious group for 15 years. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection.

THE HYPE
Fortunately for her, the tabloid-like media scrutiny of religious connections only applies to Obama. As mentioned in a previous post, the controversial words of McCain’s “spiritual advisers” have also been largely ignored.

SOURCE: Hillary Clinton’s Criticism May Come Back to Haunt Her
SOURCE: Hillary Clinton’s Religion and Politics